Reclaim “Reclaim The Night”
Nov. 26th, 2007 02:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
webofevilMy esteemed colleague rang me on Saturday night. “I hate women,” she said. I told her to come for a pint.
She had just finished her duties as a steward at the Reclaim the Night march in central London. One of her jobs was to ensure that the marchers stayed together and no gaps opened up. “Could you move up to the people in front, please,” she said at one point. The woman in front of her turned round angrily. “Feminists seek consensus,” she snapped. “They don’t tell each other what to do!”
The event was women-only. If any men wanted to show their support they were very welcome to accompany the march but they weren’t allowed among the actual marchers, as my esteemed colleague had to gently explain to one young woman and her grandfather. As they ducked out of the march she said, “I’m really sorry, but those are the rules.” A woman next to her hissed, “Never apologise to a MAN!”
The march started in Trafalgar Square. Before it began, people were coming over and asking what the event was, many of them men. One of the organisers said bitterly, “Why do men always want to know what women are up to?” My esteemed colleague’s reply was, “There are a thousand of us standing in Trafalgar Square holding banners. Enquiring what we’re doing here doesn’t constitute patriarchal oppression.” The organiser ignored her.
There were many banners, but they were poorly made and rapidly fell apart. As the march progressed, banner after banner collapsed and disappeared from view. My esteemed colleague was highly amused by this and couldn’t resist saying to another organiser, “We should have got a man in.” Whatever the diametric opposite is of the funnybone in the human body, she hit it squarely. It’s tough out there for a feminist with a sense of humour who doesn’t automatically hate men she has never met.
She had just finished her duties as a steward at the Reclaim the Night march in central London. One of her jobs was to ensure that the marchers stayed together and no gaps opened up. “Could you move up to the people in front, please,” she said at one point. The woman in front of her turned round angrily. “Feminists seek consensus,” she snapped. “They don’t tell each other what to do!”
The event was women-only. If any men wanted to show their support they were very welcome to accompany the march but they weren’t allowed among the actual marchers, as my esteemed colleague had to gently explain to one young woman and her grandfather. As they ducked out of the march she said, “I’m really sorry, but those are the rules.” A woman next to her hissed, “Never apologise to a MAN!”The march started in Trafalgar Square. Before it began, people were coming over and asking what the event was, many of them men. One of the organisers said bitterly, “Why do men always want to know what women are up to?” My esteemed colleague’s reply was, “There are a thousand of us standing in Trafalgar Square holding banners. Enquiring what we’re doing here doesn’t constitute patriarchal oppression.” The organiser ignored her.
There were many banners, but they were poorly made and rapidly fell apart. As the march progressed, banner after banner collapsed and disappeared from view. My esteemed colleague was highly amused by this and couldn’t resist saying to another organiser, “We should have got a man in.” Whatever the diametric opposite is of the funnybone in the human body, she hit it squarely. It’s tough out there for a feminist with a sense of humour who doesn’t automatically hate men she has never met.
Tis Me
Date: 2007-11-27 01:02 pm (UTC)As a postscript I should say that I still love the sisterhood – it’s an abusive relationship, but really what relationship isn’t?
There is a debate about whether to run me out of that sisterhood though. My objection to the (pointless and counter-productive) sit in outside Spearmint Rhino on the night of the march has made me a “pro-sex industry feminist who believes that prostitution is a fulfilling career”. As an “apologist for abuse in the sex industry” there is also a debate going on about whether I am actually a man pretending to be a women to divide the movement and promote prostitution to feminists.
I just happened to mention that paying for a lap dance in a legal and heavily regulated club in London was not the moral equivalent of being a rapist. Apparently it is!! Not sure how sitting down near the scene of the crime is an appropriate reaction to rape though. But what do I know, I’m unenlightened.
In sisterhood,
His esteemed colleague. XX
Re: Tis Me
Date: 2007-11-27 01:52 pm (UTC)Re: Tis Me
Date: 2007-11-27 02:02 pm (UTC)"Aren't we just conforming to a masculine definition of gender if we accept as women anyone who doesn't define themselves as a man? Surely we are more than the absence of a penis? Now I have to go and campaign about the most significant issue for women in the 21st century – Playboy have opened a shop! On Oxford Street!”
Re: Tis Me
Date: 2007-12-14 06:10 pm (UTC)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Womyn-born-womyn
Apparently, sometimes if you're born with a penis there's no cure, even having it chopped off isn't good enough :P